6th Grade Science Homework Due Wednesday 5/11

Research on the internet Weird Weather Phenomenon. Summarize an incident of weird weather in your own words. Attach the information and any photos from the internet.

Diverse Backgrounds: Significant Contributions

People all over the world have studied science, mathematics and engineering for centuries. Scientists and mathematicians make discoveries in nature, in laboratories, and by building upon the work of others. Engineers apply these discoveries.

When many of us think of a scientist, mathematician or engineer an image comes to mind. It can be an image of a bespectacled white male wearing a lab coat, or a so-called ‘nerd’ or ‘geek’.

This image is a stereotype. Each of you have the power to change this stereotype, and will provide images that contradict this stereotype through our biography project—Diverse Backgrounds: Significant Contributions.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Choose a scientist, mathematician or engineer that is living or dead. This person must be a person of color, or a woman.
• Research the work of this person. Specifically:
• Their area of expertise
• Their contributions to science, math or engineering
• Awards received

• Research the life of this person. Specifically:
• Where and when were they born?
• Where did they live?
• If they attended a university, which one and which degrees did they earn
• What hardships, if any, did they face during their life or their studies/research?
• How did they become interested in math, science or engineering?

• Write a biography of the person you chose. Your biography must be written in your own words and must be at least one page (double spaced, size 12 font). Please include photographs of the person and their discoveries or their field of study.
• Present your biography to the class

This project is worth 100 points. You will be awarded up to 75 points for your written work, and 25 points for your presentation. 

Here's how your project will be graded:

Name: _____________________

Scientist/Mathematician:  ________________________

Biography Content

• area of expertise
• contributions to science or math
• awards received
• where and when were they born?
• where did they live?
• if they attended a university, which university and which degrees did they earn?
• what hardships did they face during their life or their studies/research?
• how did they become interested in science or math?

Appropriate length?             Written in own words?            Thorough and complete?

Total Points earned:   _________ out of 75

Biography Project Presentation                            Name :  ____________________

Option:

Assume character, present life story in first person  ______ out of 25

Present info in song/rap     ______ out of 25

Poster talk                        ______ out of 25

Reading of biography                        ______ out of 15

Add ons:                        Costume +5                        Song +5

Total =  _________________ 

This project is due on Monday May 2, 2011

Late projects will receive reduced grades.

Life Science Extra Credit

Due:         Wednesday April 6^th

Research and explore one of the three topics. Present your research in the form of a poster or paper. Explain the science behind the topic. Describe the political or economic issues associated with the topic. Share your opinion on the topic, i.e. is science being used in a positive and ethical way?

Choose a topic:

·      Commercial bee keeping for agricultural purposes (science focus=pollination)

·      Genetic modification of food plants such as corn, strawberries or others (science focus=genetics and heredity)

·      Grafting of plants, specifically trees (science focus=plant growth and fruit production)

Thorough and timely completion of this extra credit project will improve your Global Warming Project grade two letter grades.

BR UNIT Summary

The Big Race Unit covered three main and VERY important topics:

• Slope of a line
• y-form of an equation (slope and y-intercept form)
• substitution method of solving a system of equations for (x,y)

1)  For this unit summary you need to write a description of each main topic.

Slope: describe what the slope of a line means, how to calculate slope, how to draw a slope triangle, what a positive slope looks like, what a negative slope looks like, and the slope of a horizontal line.

y-form of an equation: describe how to write an equation in y-form, describe what each term in the equation means, describe how to find the slope of the line from its y-form equation, describe how to find the y-intercept of the line from its y-form equation, and what it means when a y-form equation does not contain a constant.

Substitution method: describe what a system of equations is, describe what form the answer to the solution of a system of equations is, describe the TWO methods of substitution.

2)  For each topic you need to choose two problems to solve and demonstrate your understanding of the topic. For the substitution method you need to choose and solve a total of four problems, two for each method.

Your work must be shown in detail, step-by-step. Graphs must be drawn with rulers and the axes and lines must be labeled.

This Unit Summary is worth 100 points and is due Friday February 18^th.

Standards of Excellence for Science

STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCE CHECKLIST

for all

SCIENCE

q      Name, date and assignment in upper right hand corner of each page

q      Neat, clear hand writing

q      Page numbers:  4/5, with current page number/total number of pages on each page

q      Pages stapled in order, staple in upper left hand corner

q       NO INCOMPLETE WORK

q      Calculations and work shown

q      Questions answered in complete sentences

q      Axes of graphs drawn with straight edge

q      Work has been “self-reviewed” to be sure answers/explanations are complete and make sense

Important note:            Work not meeting these standards will be returned to you to be revised or redone, and will be due the following class.  

                                     Work needing revision or to be redone will be marked late.

Schedule of Science News Presentations

Science News Schedule

Date                  8^th, 6th

12/6                  Enzo, , Barbara

12/7                  Isabel

12/13                  Elizabeth, Ixchel

12/14                  Elazar

01/10                  Ani, Sophia

01/11                  Atoba

01/24                  Ameya, Sawyer

01/25                  David

01/31                  Alejandra, Mia

02/01                  Andrew

02/08                  Paul and Rachel, Max

02/08                  Adin

02/14                  Olivia,        , Fanya

02/15

03/08                  Ron and Olivia

03/14                  Mia and Mack, Deirdre

03/15                  Mikayla and Matan,

03/21                  Kyle, Dana

03/22                  Liam and Katherine

04/04                  Keith and Henry, Cam

04/05                  Joshua and Jahntu

04/11                  Enzo, Barbara

04/12                  Elazar and David

05/02                  Elizabeth, Ixchel

05/03                  Atoba and Andrew

Date                  8^th, 6th

05/09                  Ani

05/10                  Adin

05/16                  Ameya

05/23                  Alejandra

Science News Presentations

Science News Presentation Guidelines

On Mondays you or a classmate of yours will share an interesting bit of current science news. Presentations should be five minutes or less.

Topics for presentations include:

• a current science event (earthquake, volcano, significant weather event)
• an environmental issue (oil spill, water shortage, deforestation)
• a recent discovery (a new species, element, medicine)
• a scientist

Suggestions for gathering information:

• http://news.discovery.com/#mkcpgn=emnws1
• www.cnn.com
• http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/
• usgs.gov  --click on orange button “Show all hazards”
• www.noaawatch.gov

You must bring a hard copy of the information that you have gathered. This will be posted on the bulletin board.

Presentations can include a poster or drawing to illustrate the information.

Your presentation will be graded. Twenty-five points can be earned.